Blood Pressure, Hypertension and the Nervous System
Cardiovascular activities within the human body are generally facilitated by the regulation of the sympathetic and parasympathetic afferent and efferent nerve fibers. Blood pressure is the relationship between the vascular resistance and the amount of blood that the heart pumps per minute (i.e. cardiac output). Cardiac output is affected by the following factors: end-diastolic volume, cardiac muscle contraction, and heart rate. While the sympathetic nervous system controls the blood volume and the tone of venous smooth muscle (determinants of end-diastolic volume) alone, the myocardial contraction and heart rate is controlled by both sympathetic and parasympathetic regions of the autonomic ...
